Synthomer Regulatory News (SYNT)

19 Oct 2009 07:00



Yule Catto & Co plc 

Interim Management Statement

Yule Catto & Co plc, the international producer of speciality chemicals, today issues its interim management statement for the period 1 July to 30 September 2009.

The Group delivered a strong financial performance in the third quarter, exceeding the expectations of the Board at the time of its Interim Report.

In Polymer Chemicals, monomer prices increased as expected. Volumes, which were almost 15% down in the first half of the year, were less than 10% down in the quarter compared to quarter three 2008, bettering the anticipated 10-15% decline. This, together with continued good cost control and the weak pound, meant Polymers delivered a strong third quarter.

Pharma Chemicals is seasonally weak in the third quarter due to the summer shutdown period in continental Europe. We continued to see the lower volumes in the business that we experienced through the first half, but the business remains ahead of prior year as at the end of September. 

William Blythe's performance was in line with the first half of the current year, and is well ahead of last year for the nine month period.

The Group announced a number of cost reduction initiatives with its full year 2008 results which have delivered as planned.

Good progress was made on reducing Group net debt, which fell further during the quarter. In September the Group repaid the £33M current installment of its term loans, without recourse to its three year £30M revolving bank loan facility arranged in December 2008, which remained undrawn as at the end of September.

With the strong third quarter, Group profit before tax at the nine months is now well ahead of the same period last year. Raw material price rises are putting pressure on margins, and we are working to recover this through selling prices and this looks likely to persist throughout 2010. Substantial uncertainty about the global economic situation clearly remains. There has been some customer restocking during the first nine months, and whilst Polymer volumes will be ahead for the fourth quarter, we remain cautious about volume development in 2010. For the current year though, following the strong third quarter performance of the Group, the Board now expects full year underlying profit before tax for the group to substantially exceed 2008.

19 October 2009

ENQUIRIES: